The present invention relates to an inspecting device for inspecting a semiconductor wafer.
In an inspecting device for inspecting a semiconductor wafer with a microscope so as to check and inspect fine patterns formed on a surface of the semiconductor wafer, positioning of the wafer is important. Therefore, or a cutout portion, which is referred to as a notch or an orientation flat, is formed on an edge portion of the wafer so that the notch or the orientation flat can be used as a reference of positioning the wafer. As a method of detecting the notch or the orientation flat and also detecting a central position of the wafer, a method is provided in which a set of a detecting unit composed of an illuminating light source and a light receiving element is arranged so that an edge portion of the wafer can be interposed between the illuminating light source and the light receiving element and information on a profile of the wafer edge can be obtained by a change in shading signals provided by the detecting unit.
However, the positioning mechanism of positioning the wafer and the inspecting mechanism of checking and inspecting fine patterns with a microscope are composed different from each other. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a conveyance mechanism of conveying the wafer from the positioning mechanism to the inspecting mechanism. Accordingly, the size of the device is increased. Further, it is difficult to reduce the inspection process time.